Greetings from Austin, TX

mparrish

New Member
Local time
11:29 AM
Joined
Jun 27, 2008
Messages
1
Location
Austin, TX
Hello everybody. I'm glad I found this site, and am looking forward to learning and participating!

I live in SW Austin, TX, and my life outside of work & family over the past two years have been focused on mitigating the rising costs of energy. This site will hopefully be a big part of that effort.

In 2007 I bought a Prius, which with the help of folks at places like www.cleanmpg.com I "hypermile" to the tune of ~70mpg. That's our family car lifeboat. One day it likely will be converted to PHEV.

Somehow, miraculously, I convinced my wife to sell her Toyota Highlander SUV for cash (!!!) this spring before the dramatic rise to $4/gallon. Nice timing. The catch? She gets the Prius, and I..........well............I get a lift, bus pass, and bike. No problem, I say.

And it has gone pretty well, as we are fortunate to be able to pull off being a one car family. We may indeed be a two car family again, but my goal is to remain one car for at least 2-3 years before the anticipated EVs and PHEVs start to roll off the lines. I will never buy a conventional gas car again. :)

So when I'm not catchin' a ride in my former car, I am frequently biking the 13 miles to & from my work & play in downtown Austin. I have a great Specialized road bike I use for this purpose.

The good news? It's a 400 foot drop to downtown in the morning, and I arrive 45-50 minutes later at work with a workout under the belt and ready to go.

The bad news? It's a 400 foot climb back home in the afternoon, with oppressive Texas heat to boot. I rarely bike back, and instead take the bus (with the bike in tow.....every City of Austin bus has a bike rack for two).

But man, how I want to bike both ways.........powered by legs going downhill and a fuel sipping motor going back uphill! I have a dirt bike too ready to convert, and am investigating which type of motor (or kit) to purchase to make a conversion.

So that's where I am. I'm fairly handy, but also definitely a noob on this topic. I'll be spending some time on the crash course (http://www.motoredbikes.com/showthread.php?t=10392) and other threads for help before I start with the questions.

I'm sure many of you will have invaluable advice, and I thank you for that in advance.
 
Last edited:
hey there tex
it sounds like you will not have many problems that you can't work out yourself with some reading
I know I've been learning a lot the last few days from reading here
and I have some great ideas on the bike I will eventually build

good luck with your build
 
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